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The Selfish Machine? On the Power and Limitation of Natural Selection to Understand the Development of Advanced AI

Boudry, Maarten and Friederich, Simon (2024) The Selfish Machine? On the Power and Limitation of Natural Selection to Understand the Development of Advanced AI. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Some philosophers and machine learning experts have speculated that superintelligent Artificial Intelligences (AIs), if and when they arrive on the scene, will wrestle away power from humans, with potentially catastrophic consequences. Dan Hendrycks has recently buttressed such worries by arguing that AI systems will undergo evolution by natural selection, which will endow them with instinctive drives for self-preservation, dominance and resource accumulation that are typical of evolved creatures. In this paper, we argue that this argument is not compelling as it stands. Evolutionary processes, as we point out, can be more or less Darwinian along a number of dimensions. Making use of Peter Godfrey-Smith’s framework of Darwinian spaces, we argue that the more evolution is top-down, directed and driven by intelligent agency, the less paradigmatically Darwinian it becomes. We then apply the concept of “domestication” to AI evolution, which, although theoretically satisfying the minimal definition of natural selection, is channeled through the minds of fore-sighted and intelligent agents, based on selection criteria desirable to them (which could be traits like docility, obedience and non-aggression). In the presence of such intelligent planning, it is not clear that selection of AIs, even selection in a competitive and ruthless market environment, will end up favoring “selfish” traits. In the end, however, we do agree with Hendrycks’ conditionally: If superintelligent AIs end up “going feral” and competing in a truly Darwinian fashion, reproducing autonomously and without human supervision, this could pose a grave danger to human societies.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Boudry, Maartenmaartenboudry@gmail.com
Friederich, Simonemail@simonfriederich.eu
Keywords: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI); evolution by natural selection; domestication; economic competition; selfishness; Darwinian spaces
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence > AI and Ethics
Specific Sciences > Cultural Evolution
Specific Sciences > Economics
Depositing User: Maarten Maarten Boudry
Date Deposited: 12 Sep 2024 12:50
Last Modified: 12 Sep 2024 12:50
Item ID: 23903
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence > AI and Ethics
Specific Sciences > Cultural Evolution
Specific Sciences > Economics
Date: 18 August 2024
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23903

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